Recent big victories in Connecticut for women who experienced medical negligence while receiving reproductive health care are giving plaintiffs lawyers hope women's pain and injuries are being taken seriously, and that these outcomes are just the beginning.

In August, a Stamford jury awarded a mother $17 million verdict and determined that Greenwich Hospital failed to properly treat Jaqueline Rodezno while she was pregnant, leading to a stillbirth.

Then in September, 154 plaintiffs settled with Yale University in a case that alleged that the Ivy League school failed to protect the patients from experiencing an excrutiating retrievals procedure due a lack of proper protocols to prevent a nurse from diverting fentanyl.

And in October, another Stamford jury delievered a $30 million verdict to Elizabeth Tigani, who suffered serious injuries after a botched cesarean section.

While these high-profile cases have shown large strides in compensation for women harmed when receiving reproductive health care, Sean McElligott, a parter at Silver Golub & Teitell and one of the attorneys representing Tigani, said lawyers are often afraid to bring cases like this, especially if a healthy baby was delivered in spite of a mother’s injuries during childbirth.